ocean qol Ocean Quality of Life ideas

[Renato59]

Ocean feels outdated, it is not interesting to investigate:

 

The Ocean is a complete new biome outside the overworld, however it has nothing to offer more than Pearl Mission to kill Celestial Champion and a Big Tree that it is the only actual reason I often go for the ocean. 

Exploring does not reward as much compared to doing your base or exploring the caves, since both help your survivability more than the Ocean.

These are not only my ideas but I also gathered ideas from other people, I am giving them their respective credits.

Here is a legend so it stays more organized:

Red: Completely new idea

Green: New craft or way of obtainment 

Blue: Improved Mechanic

Purple: Totally new mechanic

Orange/Yellow: Reworked, has a new use, or functions differently

Boat Related:

Masts:

Useful tool for traveling, however only two options, an extra mast option wouldn’t be bad:

Palm Double-Mast:

x4   x1  x1  x12

-Has 3 upgrade Slots

-Takes some time to be opened and some time to be closed

-Has 3 speed

-(Mast has a 2.5 speed)

-(Winged Sail has a 4 speed)

Seafaring Tab, Think Tank required.

Comment: Gives Palmcone an extra use, it’s great perk is that it has 3 upgrade slots, its downfall gives extra purpose to “Pirate’s Bandanas”

 

Winged Sail:

-Has 2 upgrade Slots

Comment: Has an extra upgrade slot, making it more versatile, this Mast is already the fastest and takes no time to be closed.

 

Masts Upgrades:

Forgotten mechanic only used by Deck Illuminator and Lightning Conductor, has potential to be a great perk for boats:

 

Moon Quay Pirate Banner:

-Can be placed on Mast (and on land like before)

-Place on Mast for its benefits:

-Pirate Raids can’t happen

-(passive only works when placed on mast)

-If using a Flare a Pirate Raid will provide assistance

-(passive only works when placed on mast)

-(the monkeys will attack the enemies you are attacking, only one Pirate Raid can come help you and it has a 5 day cooldown)

Comment: Useful item, requires defeating at least one Pirate Raid, the second part of the perk might be overpowered however it seemed chaotic and goofy, such a Don’t Starve Together moment.

“The rougher the seas, the smoother we sail!”

Original Idea by Ninja Blue Jay.

 

Fire Pump:

x1  x2  x1

-Must be placed on Mast to work.

-Works Automatically.

Comment: I understand that Klei’s idea was to make us work for the fire to extinguish, however boats have no space and you often are pretty busy on a boat. This would require a visual rework since now it’s placed on a mast and works automatically. 

“How does it spread bubbles without water?” 

“Science … and fish” -Wilson (probably)

 

Deck Illuminator:

-Has an increased +1 

tile radius of light.

Comment: Buff that helps you see at night, worse than a campfire since it produces no heat and can be instantly turned off by Wavy Jones.

(I have no idea why that’s a thing though)

 

Whirl-o-Matic Drier:

x1  x3  x2  x1

-Mast upgrade.

-Dry your food on your mast, it dries 1.4 faster while moving.

-As long as the boat is moving players are granted with low overheating protection.

Seafaring Tab, Food Tab, Think Tank required.

Comment: Useful mast upgrade, your boat has a way to dry food without using extra space, gives protection for summer, so exploring feels way cooler (overheat protection is not stackable with multiple Whirl-o-Matic Driers).

 

Boats Upgrades:

These are meant to be improvements for the boat, often giving more health or an ability the boat lacks:

 

Rudder:

x1  x2  x1

-Boat has an extra 1 speed.

-Wavy Jones will always prioritize using this.

Comment: Grants speed and works as a defense against Wavy Jones (activating this only rotates the boat nothing else) but even with this buff no one is using one Gears for this item.

Shell Bumper:

-Can be repaired with Cookie Cutter Shell.

Comment: Simple as that, Cookie Cutter Shell can also be used, so it is not fully dependent on Broken Shells.

 

Scrap Bumper:

x3  x1

-Has 60 health (more than Shell Bumper, 

less than King Crab Bumper)

-Deals 20 electrical damage to 

enemies standing close around 1 tile.

-(Electrical damage is multiplied to wet enemies)

-Can be repaired with Scrap.

Seafaring Tab, Think Tank required.

Comment: Not only protects from collision damage but also from enemies: which are usually wet at the ocean.

“The best defense is a good offense”

 

Equipable Related:

Hand Slot:

Battle Paddle:

x2  x2  x1

-Requires Blueprint

-(Given by Queen of Moon Quay)

Seafaring Tab.

Comment: Palmcone is such an underused material, the rowing power is awesome, and the damage is good but Hambat is still an improvement.

I am pretty sure I read about this somewhere else but can’t find the post, I can’t give proper credits :(.

 

Seedshells:

-Can be harvested with Razor 1-2 (same as Barnacles)

-Killing Sea Weeds grants more Seedshells than harvesting 4-6

-Damage reduced to 20

-Range increased to 10

Comment: My vision for this is making it an aggro item rather than dealing damage, in the ocean you often need range to fight against Grass Gators, Gnarwails and Malbatross, on land you could throw it to distract enemies and help your friends.

 

Mag-Netting: 

x1  x1  x3

-Thrown to pick floating objects

-Can also be used to capture one fish each throw

-Fish has high chance to escape

Seafaring Tab, Tools Tab, Think Tank required.

Comment: Tool to reach afar items, also useful on land when you don’t want to build a boat for only one item, fishing with it has the risk of the fish escaping so fishing rods are still better for that task. 

“Wasn’t it easier to just throw a rope?”

 

Body Slot:

 

Seed-Pack-It:

-Not a body slot anymore, instead this

is a bag that can be held on inventory.

Comment: Any better ideas for this? I tried my best but I can’t think of anything better, this item is just not needed at all.

Head Slot:

Captain’s Tricorn:

-Boat Bumpers receive half of the damage.

-Monkeys will be peaceful unless provoked.

Includes Pirate Raids, Moon Quay

and Splumonkeys (Not shadow version)

-Drop has only 50% chance now

Comment: Can be used even outside the ocean so Monkeys don’t attack or follow you, and raids will happen but they won’t try to attack you just steal your boat’s items (this also means they won’t fire their cannons to destroy your boat).

 

Polly Roger’s Hat:

-Polly Roger grants a sanity boost for each player on the same boat of the wearer.

-Sanity boost is higher the bigger the crew is.

-Polly Roger can be healed with seeds.

-Polly Roger drops eggs if fed with meat.

Comment: Item is valuable and worth making, the ability to feed Roger to get eggs is niche, and the bigger your crew the more useful this item becomes.

 “Yarr, I be the king o’ the high seas!”

 

Cookie Cutter Cap:

-When attacked, shoot spikes that deal low

damage around the player (1.5 tile radius).

Comment: Why isn’t this already a feature? It is a nice Bramble Vest with higher range but less defense.

 

Maskbatross:

x1  x1  x5

-6 space slots (like a backpack)

-50% wetness reduction

-Repaired by a lot with Feathery Canvas, and using a Sewing Kit repairs less.

Comment: Makes Malbatross worth the search and fight, this is based on character quotes that say how enormous the peak is, players have the versatility of using body slots without losing backpack space.

“Great peak means a great responsibility”

 

Ocean related Items

 

Drops

 

Sea Weed:

-Tree Jam makes Sea Weed and close Sea Weeds friendly for a few days allowing:

-Harvest Barnacles and Seedshells peacefully during day

-Collect their pollen with empty bottles (can only be done while they are friendly or they will attack)

Pollinated Bottle used in any non-Coastal Ocean summons a Rockjaw with the highest probability, followed by Gnarwail with medium probability and 3-5 Skittersquid with low probability.

         

Comment: Pollinated bottle could have even more uses, I can’t think of them but for now it would be a nice way to farm Gnarwails or Rockjaws and Seastacks which I will talk now:

 

Seastack:

-Has a small-medium chance to be dropped by a Rockjaw

-Can be placed anywhere in ocean by Pinchin’ Winch

-Will be sunken per a few days then grow a rock

-Using Collected Dust on Seastack makes a Salt Formation

                                               

 

Comment:

 

Items

 

Feathery Roll:

x1  x1

-Allows to sleep during the day.

-Low your temperature to 10 deg.

-5 uses.

Comment: More uses to Malbatross Feathers, this one is for the summer team, allows you to sleep at day and lowers your temperature, has more uses since Feathery Canvas are more expensive to craft.

Dock Piling:

-Adds 50 durability to Docks

Comment: Dock Piling has no use other than decoration, but adding some health to Docks would give it a greater purpose.

 

Ocean extra Ideas

 

These ideas are still related to the Ocean but are not an Item or thing but rather a change to drops percentage or events.

 

Pirate Stash:

-Blueprint chances for Polly Roger’s Hat,

Moon Quay Pirate Banner are reduced to 25%

-New Loot besides the ones already exist:

x10 (15%)

x1 (5%)

x1-3 (5%)

x1-2 (25%)

x2-5 (5%)

x1 (3%)

Pirate Raid:

-Killing your first pirate raid should create 

the first “Pirate Stash” at Moon Quay Island

Comment: After you get the Accursed Trinkets the first thing you want to do is get rid of them, knowing where the island is gives you an advantage, this also gives the chance for players to incite them to fight the Raid instead of row away from it.

 

Natural Whirlportals:

-When a Rain occur, 2 connected Whirlportals spawn naturally around the ocean

-These last 240 seconds after the Rain ends

Comment: Seafaring has never been funnier, now that it is raining we can travel around to random locations, this can be dangerous or can be a fun new adventure.

 

Mobs and Biomes Related

 

We talked about how to make the ocean more “easier” getting new tools and even new mechanics to make the ocean more fun to explore, however how about some new dangers, new enemies, old enemies with new mechanics, biomes that will try to eat you alive, shadow monsters that will make your boat feel like hell, moon monsters that lurk in the depths, I would like to post something like this as a completely different part since that wouldn’t be Quality of Life at all, so any ideas would be amazing!

[Well-met]

I would prefer battle paddle does 68 damage instead of becoming craftable

rest of the ideas are good

[layangan putus]

What's the main purpose or general idea of seafaring outside reaching key places like Lunar Island, Hermit Island, and Crab King? It's not even necessary to progress the main story like just skip defeating Malba or Frostjaw and also conquering Moon Quay, let alone interacting with ocean contents like fishing, great trees, and what-not. Why? I feel it's because mastering the boat itself is tricky with little reward and I'd say it's not so satisfying seafaring experience but surely it has unique interaction.

 

OCEAN AND SEAFARING ARE INTERCONNECTED

It's hard to enjoy the ocean contents with tedious seafaring. The best game to learn from for third POV seafaring like DST is Dredge (2023) with its simple yet engaging mechanics starting from boat movement, inventory management, upgrade slots within the inventory, and various fishing mini-games. One example that I feel Klei has not been implementing to the fullest potential is Deck Illuminator that only illuminates area around the boat instead of illuminates reasonable cone area in front of the direction the boat is facing - This may need fog mechanics or total darkness to be considered useful. Still this idea is weak since almost every person I've played with (myself included) wouldn't bother much with ocean contents once they'd already figured out the key places mentioned. Simply put, there is no enough impactful contents except related to mandatory progression that can introduce new approach to play the game satisfyingly. At least, it's fun the first time players discover various ocean stuff but that only works for one time so soon it would be burden to do seafaring just for the sake of getting items or structures out of ocean contents for their project. The best DST ocean/seafaring experience I got were riding DST 6-boat carousel especially around the great tree and seafaring through DS SW storm since I always like dangerous thunderstorm with chaotic sea waves while on the boat - I find them fun and quite immersive. As for your topic, I like the polly roger's extra boon and the pirate flag idea because it's cool to conquer the sea in a way - I'd even add perk to the polly roger's hat similar to the spider queen hat so monkeys would respect the user(s) to the extent that when pirate raid occurs, they would give the user a boon. I'd also love to have bumper that covers a quarter part or even a third part of the boat instead of the current bumper that only covers 45 degrees or 1/8 of a circle boat - Of course with higher material cost.

[Frosty_Mentos]

I think the ocean overall is fine, not like it's outdated because then the whole world basically gonna be outdated as well.

My issue with the ocean generation is that - the ocean map is too small.

It could feel more like an adventure if there was more to sail off mainland but it is more like floating around a pond.

Though that's just my take, but it's not really developer fault for it, since they're trying to keep this game open to everyone and many platforms, basically. I still wonder how will Netflix gaming will pull this off on android lmao. (Nevermind they cancelled Klei games there)

[layangan putus]

First, expand the sea.

Second, they can introduce DS SW volcano zoom out camera with some clouds removed for better navigation to all seafaring stuff. Camera will turn normal if players land back to every island.

Third, add new boat with magical engine with simpler mechanics like simpler seafaring, its own inventory, and upgrade slots especially for boat cannon. Not sure if they should change the fishing mechanics.

Fourth, rework all ocean threats (sea bosses included) like Crab King and Malba to be aligned with dodging by boosting engine and shooting cannon combat playstyle - new boat has engine that can boost to dodge and upgraded boat can shoot cannon by aiming and finding the right angle between higher and lower within certain amount of time after fired.

Fifth, add solid wind mechanics, chaotic sea waves, and more dangerous sea creatures ranging from group of small sizes to intimidating medium giants for better perspective.

Sixth, add bigger boat with extra cannons to accommodate more players so they can change between deck combat with normal camera or the new zoom out camera to deal with ocean challenges. Pirate raid would be on the deck for this boat.

 

I feel like I am asking too much but these would make the ocean bigger as it should be and more immersive to experience. The ocean should destroy the spirit of unprepared sailors by giving harsh punishment through great challenges. Acknowledging obstacles like cost and time to develop this and also possible exploits with the new boats against creatures on land.

[Edible Coal]

the ocean should be BIGGER, and our boats should also be BIGGER, our threads should also be BIGGER

[Walrusst]

I sort of want to be able to put a deck weapon  on the plank/planks of the boat, replaces abandoning ship, compact when the planks retracted, but when you deploy your harpoons/net you can use it to try and defend the ship by CC'ing or damaging enemies trying to board you prior to them getting into contact. These would have reloads based on repeated interactions like raising the sail (And the net could snap if it was overloaded and need to be repaired.)

With artillery like cannons being special for being non plank based weapons that are expensive to use, strong, and easier to reload than stuff like the harpoon, and there being a warship with several deck weapon slots (Say, so you can have a group of friends try to hunt snapjaws by netting them, and repeatedly harpooning it, or you can net the paddlers on a pirate ship to try and get away from them.)

[Renato59]

On 3/31/2025 at 9:13 PM, DST enjoyer said:

What's the main purpose or general idea of seafaring outside reaching key places like Lunar Island, Hermit Island, and Crab King? It's not even necessary to progress the main story like just skip defeating Malba or Frostjaw and also conquering Moon Quay, let alone interacting with ocean contents like fishing, great trees, and what-not. Why? I feel it's because mastering the boat itself is tricky with little reward and I'd say it's not so satisfying seafaring experience but surely it has unique interaction.

 

OCEAN AND SEAFARING ARE INTERCONNECTED

It's hard to enjoy the ocean contents with tedious seafaring. The best game to learn from for third POV seafaring like DST is Dredge (2023) with its simple yet engaging mechanics starting from boat movement, inventory management, upgrade slots within the inventory, and various fishing mini-games. One example that I feel Klei has not been implementing to the fullest potential is Deck Illuminator that only illuminates area around the boat instead of illuminates reasonable cone area in front of the direction the boat is facing - This may need fog mechanics or total darkness to be considered useful. Still this idea is weak since almost every person I've played with (myself included) wouldn't bother much with ocean contents once they'd already figured out the key places mentioned. Simply put, there is no enough impactful contents except related to mandatory progression that can introduce new approach to play the game satisfyingly. At least, it's fun the first time players discover various ocean stuff but that only works for one time so soon it would be burden to do seafaring just for the sake of getting items or structures out of ocean contents for their project. The best DST ocean/seafaring experience I got were riding DST 6-boat carousel especially around the great tree and seafaring through DS SW storm since I always like dangerous thunderstorm with chaotic sea waves while on the boat - I find them fun and quite immersive. As for your topic, I like the polly roger's extra boon and the pirate flag idea because it's cool to conquer the sea in a way - I'd even add perk to the polly roger's hat similar to the spider queen hat so monkeys would respect the user(s) to the extent that when pirate raid occurs, they would give the user a boon. I'd also love to have bumper that covers a quarter part or even a third part of the boat instead of the current bumper that only covers 45 degrees or 1/8 of a circle boat - Of course with higher material cost.

I've never seen this post before, however some ideas are pretty much the same, I guess great minds think alike, I could add the credits for the Deck Illuminator if you wish since the Idea is literally the same!

On 3/31/2025 at 9:42 PM, Frosty_Mentos said:

I think the ocean overall is fine, not like it's outdated because then the whole world basically gonna be outdated as well.

My issue with the ocean generation is that - the ocean map is too small.

It could feel more like an adventure if there was more to sail off mainland but it is more like floating around a pond.

Though that's just my take, but it's not really developer fault for it, since they're trying to keep this game open to everyone and many platforms, basically. I still wonder how will Netflix gaming will pull this off on android lmao. (Nevermind they cancelled Klei games there)

In my opinion the ocean is just fine so far, however they kept adding more Shadow and Moon Aligned stuff and completely forgot about the overworld at all, these days all the updates are centered on Shadows or the Moon and adding really late game stuff, but I would rather prefer them to expand the Constant world itself, I don't really care about fighting a huge ass boss, but rather to survive a challenging adventure, where exploration is the deal and you have to improvise with the tools you've got, less weapons and more artifacts that give an advantage surviving, I see it as "We enjoy the trip more than the ending", maybe the ocean were the friends we made on the way type of thing lmao.

On 4/1/2025 at 12:44 PM, Walrusst said:

I sort of want to be able to put a deck weapon  on the plank/planks of the boat, replaces abandoning ship, compact when the planks retracted, but when you deploy your harpoons/net you can use it to try and defend the ship by CC'ing or damaging enemies trying to board you prior to them getting into contact. These would have reloads based on repeated interactions like raising the sail (And the net could snap if it was overloaded and need to be repaired.)

With artillery like cannons being special for being non plank based weapons that are expensive to use, strong, and easier to reload than stuff like the harpoon, and there being a warship with several deck weapon slots (Say, so you can have a group of friends try to hunt snapjaws by netting them, and repeatedly harpooning it, or you can net the paddlers on a pirate ship to try and get away from them.)

One of my ideas that didn't make it to the final was to make the item "Mag-netting" be able to be thrown with a cannon, capturing enemies for a brief period of time, it would even work on land enemies, and then you would have to pull the net back once the enemy sets free so you can shot them again.  

[Swiyss]

They should add bumpers (or something else) that won't allow cookie cutters to jump on your boat. This would be a nice late game thing, especially for collecting salt.